GATE BID WAS ALWAYS OPEN
JAMES Belshaw believes Harrogate Town’s refusal to hit the early-season panic button has been key in their rise from the bottom-half to National League title candidates.
The outstanding Town goalkeeper has revealed how boss Simon Weaver, after winning just three of their opening 12 games, which left them languishing in 18th, kept the faith in their methods. “We were never really worried, because we knew we had the quality and potential to get up the league,” the 29-year-old shot stopper, who signed a new deal this week to stay at the club until 2023, told The NLP.
“There were no crisis meetings, it was business as usual.
“The manager has been there 11 years and he’s taken the club to its highest point. The message was we’re doing the right thing, it will come. It’s been a gradual progression and has put us in a good position to challenge.”
Before yesterday, Harrogate had won six on the bounce, including five clean sheets to lift them into second – a familiar position after last season’s near-miss in the play-offs.
The run has taken Belshaw’s clean sheet tally to 12 – one behind Barrow’s Joel Dixon who leads the chart – matching his total from the whole of last season.
Experiences
“Strikers look where they are in the goalscoring chart, keepers look at the clean sheet chart,” he said. “It’s a measure of how well you’re doing. Of course, it doesn’t tell the whole story of how you’re playing but you are ultimately judged on clean sheets.
“It shows that not only am I doing something right but the back four and the unit are hard to break down.
“It’s my third season at the club, it’s been a fantastic three years. We got promoted, then got into the play-offs and now we’re second.
“On a personal note, I’ve played pretty much every game since I’ve been here. It’s a very good club to be at, a family club. Contrary to what people think it’s not a club that goes and spends stupid amounts of money. The wage bill is kept very tight, it’s run sustainably and by good people. There’s no egos in the dressing no cliques, everyone gets on.”
Harrogate have given themselves another shot at promotion and Belshaw reckons it could be second time lucky.
“I’m a big believer of the beaten finalist syndrome,” he added. “It’s horrible at the time but you learn from those experiences. We want to push for the title but we’re not going to get ahead of ourselves, we’re in a good position to finish in the play-offs.
“When you talk to people and say you play for Harrogate Town they say ‘who?’. But we’re in the National League and on the verge of the Football League.”